The Growing Case Against Red Meat

“From Time.com In more news that has steak-lovers feeling deflated, a study published in this week’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that people who indulge in high amounts of red meat and processed meats, including steak, bacon, sausage and cold cuts, have an increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease. The findings add power to the growing push – by health officials, environmentalists and even some chefs – to cool America’s love affair with meat.

The analysis of more than half a million Americans between the ages of 50 and 71 found that men in the highest quintile of red-meat consumption – those who ate about 5 ounces of red meat a day, or roughly the equivalent of a small steak, according to lead author Rashmi Sinha – had a 31% higher risk of death over a 10-year period than men in the lowest consumption quintile, who ate less than 1 ounce of red meat per day, or approximately three slices of ham. Men in the top fifth also had a 22% higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27% higher risk of dying of heart disease. In women, the figures were starker: women in the highest quintile of consumption had a 36% increased 10-year risk of death compared with women who ate little red meat; eating lots of meat was also associated with a 20% higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50% higher risk of dying of heart disease. (Read “A History of Beef, Times Two”.)….”